FCC Approves Qualcomm Use of TV Channel 55 in Philadelphia

The FCC approved Qualcomm's application to modify station WPZA236 to allow operation on TV Channel 55 in the Philadelphia, Pa. area.

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The FCC approved Qualcomm's application to modify station WPZA236 to allow operation on TV Channel 55 in the Philadelphia, Pa. area. Nextstar Broadcasting agreed to accept potential interference to 2.31 percent of the population in the noise-limited service contour of the construction permit for WHAG-DT.

As discussed in RF Report for Jan. 25, 2007, the FCC previously granted Qualcomm's application to use Channel 55 in the Norfolk/Richmond, Va. area. Interference from this operation is included in the 2.31 percent total interference to WHAG-DT. The commission used the same reasoning in granting this Qualcomm Channel 55 application as it did for the earlier grant--Qualcomm's MediaFLO will provide more viewing options at mass market prices and grant of the application will contribute to the growth of the American economy.

Of the total number of potential WHAG-DT viewers receiving interference, only 357 persons are predicted to no longer be able to receive NBC DTV service from another NBC station before WHAG-DT switches channels at the end of the DTV transition period in 2009. Viewers in this interference area will continue to be served by at least eight other analog and digital TV stations.

QUALCOMM is continuing to expand its MediaFLO network, which uses TV channel 55. This week the FCC approved agreements with NEXSTAR Broadcasting, licensee of WHAG-DT on channel 55 in Hagerstown, Md., that will allow QUALCOMM to operate multiple sites in markets in New York state.

An agreement between ION Media Networks Inc., licensee of WOPX, Channel 56, in Melbourne, Fla. and Qualcomm has led the FCC to grant permission for Qualcomm to deploy its MediaFLO "mediacast" service in the Tampa-Orlando (Florida) area.

Qualcomm obtained licenses in all six Economic Area Groupings (EAG) that were auctioned as Block D (TV Channel 55) in the lower 700 MHz band and it is now seeking clarification of FCC rules protecting existing TV/DTV broadcasters from interference from Qualcomm's proposed operations on Channel 55. As reported in RF R

Last month, the FCC released an order allowing Qualcomm to use OET-69 interference methodology and setting de minimis limits for Qualcomm interference to broadcast stations. Last week, the Association for Maximum Service Television filed a Petition for Reconsideration and/or Clarification of the Qualcomm order, say

The FCC this week approved the use of Qualcomm's MediaFLO mobile video service, with conditions. Qualcomm petitioned the commission in January 2005, seeking changes in FCC rules and policies in connection with implementation of its MediaFLO service on television channel 55 throughout the United States, and, in particu

The FCC granted a request from Johnson Broadcasting of Dallas, licensee of KLDT in Lake Dallas, Texas, for authority to cease analog broadcasting on NTSC Channel 55, surrender its license for that channel prior to the end of the DTV transition and operate as a digital-only television station on Channel 54. Johnson argu